Proceedings of the Forty First Turbomachinery Symposium

September 24-27, 2012, Houston, Texas

FIXED SPEED COMPRESSORS OPERATION IN OFFSHORE PRODUCTION PLATFORMS

Fabio de Norman et dAudenhove

Turbomachinery Engineer
Petrleo Brasileiro S.A. (PETROBRAS)
Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

Andre Varella Guedes (MSc)

Turbomachinery Engineer
Petrleo Brasileiro S.A. (PETROBRAS)
Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

Michel Stathakis Neto (MSc)

Turbomachinery Engineer
Petrleo Brasileiro S.A. (PETROBRAS)
Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

Bruno da Silva Marques (MSc)

Turbomachinery Engineer
Petrleo Brasileiro S.A. (PETROBRAS)
Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

Fabio de Norman et dAudenhove is a

Turbomachinery Engineer with Petrobras
E&P Rio de Janeiro Operations Unit. He
has been working with turbomachinery in
the oil and gas business for 5 years. Mr.
Norman is the leading mechanical
engineer in the group responsible for
technical
support
to
existing
turbomachinery operation. He has also
warked in specification, selection and shop test acceptance of
turbomachinery.
Mr. de Norman received a B.S. degree (Mechanical
Engineering) from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. He
has authored technical papers on turbomachinery condition
analysys.

Michel
Stathakis
Neto
is
Turbomachinery Engineer in Petrobras
E&P Rio de Janeiro Operations Unit
for 9 years. He has been working with
turbomachinery in the oil and gas
business in the Turbomachinery group
of Roncador field working with
maintenance
engineering;
specification, selection and shop test
acceptance of turbomachinery. Mr. Stathakis Neto now is
member of Turbomachinery engineering group responsible for
technical support to existing turbomachinery operation.
Mr. Stathakis Neto received a B.S. degree (Electronic
Engineering) and M.T. degree (Master Technology) both from
CEFET Rio de Janeiro.

Andre Varella Guedes is a

Turbomachinery
Engineer
with
Petrobras E&P Rio de Janeiro
Operations Unit. He has been
working with turbomachinery in the
upstream oil and gas business for 5
years. Mr. Varella has been involved
in centrifugal compressors acceptance
tests,
start-up,
operation
and
performance monitoring. His current duties involve technical
support and troubleshooting with existing turbomachinery fleet
in Petrobras upstream oil and gas services.
Mr. Varella received his B.S. degree (Mechanical Engineering,
2005) from Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and his M.S.
degree (Mechanical Engineering, 2008) from Federal
University of Rio de Janeiro .He has authored technical papers
on turbomachinery thermodynamics and performance
monitoring.

Bruno da Silva Marques is a

Turbomachinery Engineer with Petrobras
E&P Rio de Janeiro Operations Unit. He
has been working with turbomachinery in
the oil and gas business for 4 years. Mr.
Marques is mechanical engineer in the
group responsible for technical support to
existing turbomachinery operation. He
has also worked in specification, selection
and shop test acceptance of turbomachinery.
Mr. Marques received a B.S and a M.S. degree (Mechanical
Engineering) from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro.
His area of expertise is Turbomachinery Performance.

Copyright 8 2011 by Turbomachinery Laboratory, Texas A&M University

ABSTRACT
This paper discusses the use of centrifugal compressors with
fixed speed in offshore production units using as reference the
experience of the Petrobras Rio de Janeiro Operational Unit.
The operational and maintenance records of two of its major
production platforms are used to discuss technical aspects on
the specification and acceptance during testing of fixed-speed
compressors. From this discussion, recommendations are
formulated to prevent repetition of the main problems faced by
the Operational Unit in the operation and maintenance of such
equipment.
INTRODUCTION
The first production platforms in Rio de Janeiro Operational
Unit used variable-speed drivers for their main gas
compressors: gas turbines in one platform and electric motors
with variable frequency drivers (VFDs) on the other three
platforms. The usage of fixed speed electric motor to drive the
main compressors began to be used in upstream projects from
2002, with the first two platforms starting production in 2008
and 2009.This new configuration of the main compression
system brought new challenges and a new philosophy for its
operation and control, along with a simplification of the
compression module.
The problems faced in the first years of operation on these
two units led to this work. Traditional the three compression
stages train, in two casings, were powered by a single driver. In
this new configuration for the main compressor system, the
previous single three-stage train is divided into two
compressors trains, each driven by its own electric motor,
allowing greater operational flexibility: a low pressure
compressor can be operated paired with any of the high
pressure compressors.
This simplification and increased flexibility of the main
compression has taken their toll. The fixed speed compressors
and the suction throttling capacity control dont have the same
operational flexibility that variable speed compressors do. The
equipment limits, either in available head or available power,
are more easily achieved with changing operational conditions
in comparison to the design conditions. These deviations are
quite common and have a wide range of causes, from
operational necessity to reservoir uncertainties in the design
phase.
This paper will show that the successful use of fixed speed
electric motor as compressor drivers in new projects depends
largely on the reduction of reservoir uncertainties, a better
assessment on the sizing of the driver during the design phase
and new control strategies, such as the implementation of a
control loop for electric motor current.
HISTORY
The selection of the technology used for the compressordriver pair takes into account various technical and economic
factors. Some technical factors typically taken into account are
the type of vessel where the compression system will be
installed (floating production storage and offloading units or
semisubmersible platforms), the operational envelope, the

required compression power, the associated control strategy,

the weight and occupied area of the equipments and
arrangement of the electrical system. The economic factors
include the investment costs (CAPEX) and operational costs
(OPEX). Operational costs account for spendings in the entire
life cycle of the unit (typically 25 to 30 years of operation),
including energy, consumables, maintenance costs and, with
greater importance, the availability of equipment. Each
arrangement alternative will give the compression system a
different reliability and availability.
For the compressor, from a technical standpoint, the flow
rates and discharge pressures typically demanded for
production gas movement in offshore units typically leads to
the selection of multi-stage centrifugal compressors with
interstage cooling, liquid knockout between stages and
contaminants (such as CO 2 , H 2 S and water) removal plants.
The driver selection, taking into account the above parameters,
can be categorize according to the associated control strategy,
divided in two major groups: variable speed compressors and
fixed speed compressors.
Variable speed compressors
For the compressor, speed variation is the most efficient
control strategy from both the energy consumption and
operational flexibility points of view. From the driver
viewpoint, however, the speed variation becomes a
complicating factor, due to the amount of required power and
the size of the equipments involved, demanding more elaborate
devices to vary the speed in a fast, reliable and controlled
fashion. Typical devices used for this purpose in offshore gas
compressors are gas turbines, variable frequency drivers and
hydraulic variable speed drivers.
Gas turbine driven compressors
This configuration was historically used in the Campos
Basin projects prior to 2002. Gas turbines are well proven
technology in the offshore environment and have an inherent
capacity for speed variation within the range required by
centrifugal compressors. Typically, light industrial or
aeroderivative gas turbines are used.
As advantages of this driver, we have electric power being
used only for relatively small auxiliary loads, leading to a
significantly reduced power generation system and associated
electrical panels. A wide range of gas turbines with rated power
up to 30MW ISO is available with extensive operational
experience.
As disadvantages, these devices are heavy and take up
greater area when the auxiliaries systems are taken into
account. They also present performance and integrity
degradation over time, requiring periodic interventions for
preventive maintenance and have a significant influence from
ambient conditions, leading to the need of oversizing the driver.
VFD driven compressors
This technology gained strength with developments in
power electronics devices and has different architectures
depending on model and manufacturer. Despite their

Copyright 8 2011 by Turbomachinery Laboratory, Texas A&M University

differences, these devices have similar basic working principle:

speed variation of the electric motor by variation on the
frequency of the voltage available to the motor. This is
achieved by the use of power electronic devices, generically
called thyristors, which function as switches controlling the rate
of voltage pulses delayed from the original alternating-current
source by a transformer.
This device has no moving mechanical parts to wear and
show good controllability, acting directly on the motor.
Additionally, it presents present smoothed start up, reducing the
impact of starting currents on the electrical system.
However, this arrangement requires much electric power,
heavily impacting the size of the electrical system and leading
to a centralized power generation. Due to the size of the
equipment, it requires greater sheltered area, ventilated or
refrigerated for panels and transformers, resulting in great
difficulty when the movement of components such as coils and
transformers for maintenance is needed. Depending on the
configuration it still requires harmonic filters and has a history
of unforeseen failures to critical components (thyristors, cells,
coils, and transformers) during operation.
Compressor with fixed speed electric motors and hydraulic
variable speed drives
This technology, although not new, has no history of
application in offshore units in Brazil and will be used in the
first platforms of the Pre-salt area development. This device,
which replaces the gearbox, is approximately 30% bigger than
a traditional gearbox and uses a induction electric motor with
fixed speed. It varies the compressor speed changing the degree
of hydraulic coupling in a torque converter, similar to torque
converters in automotive hydraulic transmission.
As advantages, this system achieves reduced starting
torques by reducing the hydraulic coupling, helping to reduce
the motor starting time and its impact on electrical system and
it has the lowest total area requirement among the variable
speed options. It has a high reliability and availability, in
onshore applications, and, despite using moving mechanical
parts, has low maintenance and operation costs.
Besides having no historical data in offshore applications,
this arrangement also has the disadvantage of requiring a large
centralized power generation system.
Adopting fixed speed electric motor driven compressors
The adoption of fixed speed electric motors as drivers for
large gas compressors implies in a simplification of the
compression system, with the replacement of variable speed
drivers (GTs, VFDs or HSDs) by suction throttling valves as
the capacity control strategy. This change has brought a great
increase in the system reliability, due to the failure history with
long periods of repair of VFDs and their transformers, along
with significant reduction in the area and weight required by
the compression system. This change also brought some
disadvantages and the need of special attention to some details,
especially in the design phase, which will be discussed below.
The use of electric motors with fixed speed led to doubts
regarding its impact on the platform electrical system.
Typically, platforms in the Rio de Janeiro Operational Unit use

compressors with two casings and nominal compression ratio

and flow of 25:1 and 2x106 Nm3/day, which leads to a power of
compression in the range of 10 to 12MW (and up to 16.7MW in
one unit using 3x106 Nm3/d compressors). These two casings
may be driven by a single or by two separate electric motors.
The adoption of compressor trains driven by a single direct
starting electric motor leads to special care being needed with
respect to the electrical system of the platform, such as the
selection of motors with low starting current to prevent big
drops in the electrical system voltage and the need for the
operation of four 25MW gas turbine generator sets for the
electric motor start-up. Because of the uncertainties with
respect to these points, meaning, whether or not to perform
direct starts in electric motors of this size in an isolated
electrical system, in the first platforms with fixed speed
compressors adopted a division in the compression system in
two modules with the use of an intermediate header and one
electric motor for each compressor casing. As a further
disadvantage, the adoption of a single electric motor to drive all
the compressor casings leads to the selection of a large electric
motor, making it extremely difficult to be moved for repair in
the event of a failure.
Some recent projects kept the two modules arrangement,
but, rather than an having an intermediate header, process
plants such as dehydrating (glycol) and CO 2 removal (amine)
lies between them. On another unit, compression train
arrangement with a single direct starting driver for all casings
was selected, in this case with a 15.8MW electric motor. These
units described above are not yet in operation.
The split of the compression modules in two has
advantages such as increasing the reliability of the system, by
allowing operation of the low pressure and high pressure
compressors in any arrangement (for example, operating LP-A
with HP-C), and the usage of smaller motors, easing the
movement of these equipment during any maintenance.
The adoption of an arrangement with an intermediary
header results, however, in a dilemma with respect to the
arrangement of the various compression stages on the different
modules. On all platforms in the Rio de Janeiro Operational
Unit, as well as many others in Campos Basin, three
compression stages (sections) are used, being usual for the first
casing to contain two compression stages in back-to-back
arrangement and another straight-through casing to contain the
third stage. This arrangement, when compared with the
arrangement in which the first casing as a single section
straight-through configuration and the last two stages are in
another back-to-back casing, minimizes internal leakages
between stages (because of the smaller pressure difference
between the units), increasing the efficiency of the compressor.
However, the best balance of power requirements between the
two casings is achieved by the second arrangement, allowing
the selection of identical and interchangeable motors as drivers
for each casing.
The use of identical electric motors has proved extremely
valuable when it was needed to carry out a recall on all electric
motors on one of the platforms. In this case it was possible to
repair the motors in sequence while keeping only one LP
compressor (with capacity slightly larger than the HP
compressor) unavailable, thus minimizing the compression
capacity loss.

Copyright 8 2011 by Turbomachinery Laboratory, Texas A&M University

On the other hand, the adoption of a straight-through

casing for the first compression stage and a back-to-back casing
for the last two stages results in higher suction pressures in the
second and third stages. Depending on the concentration of
CO 2 in the compressed gas, this higher pressure may lead to or
aggravate corrosion of carbon steel (function of the CO 2 partial
pressure and gas flow velocity), as occurred in another
platform. In these cases, special care is needed in the design
phase concerning the materials selection, especially for the
suction region of each compression stage.
ISSUES AND LIMITATIONS WITH THE FIXED SPEED
CONFIGURATION
The fixed speed electric motor driven compressors, when
compared with GT or VFD driven compressors, is a
configuration option that is less adaptable to deviations in the
operating conditions originally specified in the compressors
selection phase.
Despite the gains by system simplification, the successful
application of this driver option depends on the reduction of the
uncertainties on the design parameters, especially the
composition of the gas to be moved and pressures required.
Electric motor overload
In the Rio de Janeiro Operational Unit, a major challenge
faced by the first two units operating with fixed speed electric
motors was the recurring events of compressor electric motor
overload, which occurred largely due to the significant
difference between the design conditions of the compressor and
the its operating condition, as required by the production plant.
The compressors in the first three platforms operating fixed
speed compressors were specified from a single operational
point. The choice of this rated point, for each unit, was made
based in the foreseen maximum discharge pressure requirement
to ensure gas lift and gas export throughout the life of the
platform. The selection criteria of the driver, as stated in the
API 617 standard (2002), ensures that the selected electric
motor has an additional power margin of at least 10% over the
highest required power among the specified conditions, in order
to accommodate possible variations in process conditions and
in the compressed gas composition. However, the operating
conditions established for these projects does not match the
point of maximum power demand in the compressor
operational range. In practice, it was observed that the actual
required discharge pressure to perform gas lift and gas
exportation was lower than the design case, resulting in a
different operating condition than originally provided (see
Figure 1).
In general, centrifugal compressors tend to demand more
power with higher flow rates and with lower pressure ratios
required by the process. In this case of increased power
demand, the power margin in the electric motor is reduced to
less than 10%, being often insufficient to accommodate
operational situations such as variation in the produced gas
composition, variation in the three-phase (gas, oil and water)
separation pressure and the equipment natural performance
degradation.

Figure 1. Schematics on how an operating point different from

rated point can lead to a power demand above the electric
driver rated power, causing overload.
To solve this issue it was necessary to review togheter with
the electric motor manufacture the project of its cooling system
to identify any design margins that could be used to increase
the motor rated power. However, as there is no guarantee that
this type of solution can be adopted in all cases, it is
recommended to select the driver with a 10% power margin to
the highest demanded power point in the compressor curve,
instead of the specified points. This selection criterion may
impact the power generation system design, In such situations it
may be needed to reduce the driver power margin to avoid
oversizing the power generation. Even in such cases, the
electric driver selection margin shall reference the highest
demanded power point in the compressor curve, with a
minimum of 4% margin.
Reservoir uncertainties
The type of the gas to be handled impacts heavily on the
selection of the compressors. For upstream units, the gas
composition adopted as design parameter for the compressor is
achieved by simulation and fluids analysis results obtained in
the exploration phase of the reservoir. Frequently, the samples
are taken from few exploratory wells, while the operating unit
compresses a blend of gas from several wells. This process
brings a great level of uncertainty to the estimated compressed
gas composition.
In one platform, the molecular weight difference between
the gas composition used as design parameter and the

Copyright 8 2011 by Turbomachinery Laboratory, Texas A&M University

composition achieved in operation exceeded 10%. While the

specified gas predicted a molecular weight of 21.7 kg/kmol at
the compressor suction, the actual gas was as light as 19.0
kg/kmol. This difference resulted in up to 40% reduced flow
capacity (Figure 2). The main reasons for this divergence were
the three-phase separation temperature reduction and the
production of the reservoirs gas cap during the first year of the
unit. The wells connection campaign to the platform lasted for
about two years and during this period the capacity of the
compressors was severely reduced (the final gas blend have a
molecular weight similar to the design one). It is noteworthy
that the gas composition of the reservoirs gas layer is not
known in advance, unlike the composition of its oil and
associated gas, which can be estimated from samples taken in
the exploration phase.

casing and the high pressure compressor was arranged in a two

sections in back-to-back casing. This configuration results in a
significantly higher suction pressure for the third section
(Figure 3).
In units in which the compressed gas contains nonnegligible fraction of CO 2 (typically above 0,1%), the
conditions at the suction of the final stages of compression,
saturated gas at high pressure, can have a severe corrosion
potential (API, 1999) for carbon steel components, such as
pipes, vessels and the compressor itself. This phenomenon was
quite evident in one of the first three platforms to used fixed
speed electric motors, where the compressors suffered severe
internal corrosion in the casing and in the first diaphragm of
third section (both carbon steel), while the pipes and the
scrubber (manufactured in stainless steel) in the suction of the
compressor were unaffected.

Figure 2. Schematics on how the change of the compressed gas

molecular weight affects the compressor capacity.

Figure 3. Typical compressor trains arrangements showing their

influence on interstage pressures.

Some of the uncertainties in the design parameters for a

project may not be reduced in a feasible way. A possible
alternative to accommodate large variations in operating
condition, therefore reducing the risks associated with the gas
composition uncertainties, is to specify some other operational
conditions in the design phase. This could be from information
taken from other exploratory wells or similar reservoirs, or
even by extrapolating the predicted composition to more
extreme scenarios. Importantly, this alternative would result in
a slight increase in investment cost, from extra engineering
hours and maybe even the design or manufacture of a second
gear set with different output speed, but would certainly reduce
production losses, a far greater cost, due to these uncertainties
during operation. For most projects, a different output speed
should be sufficient accommodate the different gas composition
scenario. For a wider gas composition range, a second set of
compressor internals or speed variation should be evaluated.

In a later project, where a higher fraction of CO 2 was

predicted, the material selection by the compressor
manufacturer foresaw the corrosive potential on carbon steel
components, opting to use stainless steel cladding in the casing
internal surface and to manufacture the diaphragm entirely in
stainless steel.
For the unit suffering from CO 2 corrosion, a similar
solution was adopted: coating the casing internal area and the
first diaphragms with electroless nickel platting. This case, and
the difficulty in applying this coating in compressors already
operating in offshore units, lead to a revision in the internal
technical requirements for offshore gas compressors, resulting
in corrosion-resistant materials being adopted from the design
phase.

Compressor internal corrosion

As described above, in the first projects to adopt fixed
speed electric motors as compressor drivers, it was opted to
have identical electric motors driving both low and high
pressure compressors. Consequently, the low pressure
compressor was arranged in a single section straight-through

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMENDATIONS

It is the authors opinion that the adoption of fixed speed
electric motors as main compressors drivers drive brought a
great simplification and robustness to the compression systems
in the Rio de Janeiro Operational Unit platforms, being a good
option for future projects, especially for those without a large
variation or uncertainty in the gas to be compressed. The
problems described in this paper can be avoided with some
adjustments in the technical specifications for gas compressors.

Copyright 8 2011 by Turbomachinery Laboratory, Texas A&M University

To avoid electric motor overload events two strategies are

recommended. The first is the extension of the 10% power
margin requirement for the electric motor selection from the
compressor rated point to the maximum compression power
point in the compressor operational envelope. In some cases,
this criterion may need to be adjusted to avoid power
generation oversizing. The second is the implementation of an
electric power (or current) limiter control loop in the
compressor capacity controller, acting on the suction throttle
valve. For such limit loop to work, the throttle valve must be
installed inside the compressor recycle loop, eliminating the
need of the sometimes used starting valve.
To minimize the risks associated with reservoir
uncertainties concerning compressed gas composition, it is
recommended that the design includes alternative scenarios,
with both lighter and heavier gas compositions. As a way to
add flexibility to the compression plant, the project can include
a second gear set design with a different output speed to
accommodate some of these scenarios.
Finally, although the compressor internal corrosion issues
are not caused by its fixed speed driver, this exacerbated a
fragility in recent projects with significant CO 2 content by
increasing the last section suction pressure. With a careful
analysis of both materials and coatings to be used in the
compressors internal components, especially on the higher
pressure ones, this corrosion-related failures can be avoided.
The usage of fixed speed electric motors as gas compressor
drivers is a simple solution and, with the above adaptations in
our technical specifications, should prove to be even more
robust and reliable.
REFERENCES
API 617, 2002, Axial and Centrifugal Compressors and
Expander-compressors for Petroleum, Chemical and Gas
Industry Services, 7th edition, American Petroleum
Institute, Washington, DC, USA.
API SPEC 6A, 1999, Specication for Wellhead and
Christmas Tree Equipment, 17th edition, American
Petroleum Institute, Washington, DC, USA.
Miranda, M.A., Meira, O.G.. 2008. Life cycle assessment of
turbomahcinery for offshore applications updated with
field data, Proceding of the 37th Turbomachinery
Symposium, Turbomachinery Laboratory, Texas A&M
University, College Station, Texas, pp 103-110.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank all the people working in
the turbomachinery maintenance teams, in engineering group
and at the research center that helped solve the issues presented
on this paper.

Copyright 8 2011 by Turbomachinery Laboratory, Texas A&M University